TECHNICAL PAPER Why Auto Dealers Are Using Positive Alert Celebrations in Customer Experience Programs

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1 TECHNICAL PAPER Why Auto Dealers Are Using Alert Celebrations in Customer Experience Programs A Mechanism to Avoid Missed Feedback Opportunities

2 respondent comments can provide 5X the feedback Your customers like you. Just ask. Recent MaritzCX studies show that voice of the customer (VoC) survey respondents who are prompted to share a positive or celebration comment during the survey are five times more likely to provide feedback. What s more, in some instances, MaritzCX found over 80 percent of that verbatim to be complimentary of the customer s experience. Many customer experience tracking programs, or VoC surveys, contain hot alerts prompting the respondent to express an issue or concern they might have encountered during the sales or service process. In turn, these descriptive comments prove extremely valuable to the auto dealer, enabling them to quickly address the customer s problems. Such alerts and subsequent fixes are critical to a dealership s success, but why all the negativity? The average new car dealer has been in business for decades. They must be doing something right. CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION MaritzCX led customers into their happy place by inserting celebration prompts into two, recent CX-dealer surveys conducted for a Canadian automobile manufacturer. The results were reason to celebrate. Yes, there were more complimentary responses generated as anticipated, but researchers identified another exciting trend when comparing negative-prompt and positiveprompt surveys. MaritzCX found that negative prompts resulted in only about 6 percent of the respondents providing feedback; however, celebration prompts resulted in as much as 33 percent of survey-takers offering comments. Subsequently, researchers were doubly happy to conclude that surveys prompting positive comments can provide up to five times the feedback of surveys prompting only negative prompts. In the MaritzCX studies, the incidence of responses containing any comment in the questionnaire reached a high of 38 percent. And, of the 38 percent providing feedback, 86 percent of those comments were positive (33 percent of total respondents). Given this, excluding a celebration prompt would potentially ignore almost 9-in-10 complimentary comments from respondents. A CLOSER LOOK AT CUSTOMER HAPPINESS The charts below offer a visual of results from the celebration-prompted CX dealership study that entailed surveying both sales and service customers. The pie charts depict the response percentage, and of that number, both positive and negative response percentages. As shown, sales questionnaire respondents are, overall, more likely to leave comments than those in service (38% vs. 22%), and among the comments provided, the majority are positive 86 percent for sales and 70 percent for service. The high incidence of celebration feedback is a key reason MaritzCX suggests implementing celebration prompts along with traditional hot alerts and prompts. 2

3 Celebration-Prompted Responses Nothing to Share Left Comment Comment Negative Comment Sales: Program #1 14% 62% 38% 86% Service: Program #2 78% 30% 22% 70% Benefits of Celebration Prompts There are many benefits to implementing celebration prompts into your surveys. First, they provide details about positive experiences that allow dealers and staff to know exactly what they should continue focusing on to provide a positive experience, as opposed to only what needs to be improved. Improve These Aspects + Continue Performing These Aspects 3

4 Second, they provide feedback that otherwise may not occur for some dealers, especially among top performing dealerships where without the positive prompts, those dealerships may only receive negative feedback. Providing positive comments helps dealership staff identify what they did that had a positive impact on the customer s experience so they can continue leveraging that aspect. Process Interaction Impact Third, they provide the potential to recognize specific employees who do an outstanding job or provided a positive experience to a customer. Celebratory prompts provide recognition that otherwise may not occur. Improving Employee Performance, Processes, and Action Plans At MaritzCX we believe in helping our customers get the most out of their surveys and customer experience programs. Working with our clients, and doing additional research about this topic has ensured we re making sure our customers are learning from both the positive and negative comments gathered from their surveys and customer experience (CX) programs. All customer feedback can be useful in developing action plans, whether it is to improve aspects of the experience, or reinforce aspects of the experience to ensure positive performance is maintained and remains consistent across the brand. 4

5 Derek Lobenbruck Research Director, MaritzCX Derek Lobenbruck is a Research Director at MaritzCX focusing on conducting research for the Canadian automotive sector. He works with manufacturers on the analysis and applicaiton of research findings especially as it relates to enhancing their customer experience, and in providing key information to support with sales and marketing activities. Prior to joining MaritzCX in 2015, Derek spent several years designing and executing quantitative and qualitative research programs, and providing valuable insights to clients across the Automotive, Retail, Financial, and Telecommunications sectors. Derek has an MBA from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. To demo a product or to contact MaritzCX call North America I Asia Pacific +61 (2) I UK & Ireland +44 (0) I Germany +49 (0) maritzcx.com maritzcx.com/au maritzcx.co.uk maritzcx.de MaritzCX believes organizations should be able to see, sense and act on the experiences and desires of every customer, at every touch point, as it happens. We help organizations increase customer retention, conversion and lifetime value by ingraining customer experience 5 intelligence and action systems into the DNA of business operations. For more information, visit / MaritzCX Holdings LLC. All Rights Reserved. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.